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Exploring Fitness and Population Change under Selection: Avida-Ed Lab Book Exercise 3

Author(s): Amy Lark, Cory Kohn1, Jim Smith1, Louise Mead2, Robert T Pennock1, Wendy Johnson

1. Michigan State University 2. BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action

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Summary:
An introductory activity exploring the process of natural selection in action using the Avida-ED simulation.

Licensed under CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International according to these terms

Version 1.0 - published on 17 May 2020 doi:10.25334/N8QM-MS64 - cite this

Description

Observe the process of natural selection in action: beneficial mutations will randomly occur for some individuals, these mutant organisms will have a greater fitness due to their adaptation to the environment and will tend to increase in frequency in the population over successive generations.

Student Learning Goals

  • Students will be able to explain the concept of fitness as used in biology, and that an organism’s fitness may change, depending upon its environment.
  • Students will be able to explain the process of adaptation by natural selection, leading to genetic frequency change in a population over many generations.
  • Students will be able to explain that natural selection is non-random.

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